I’m in a cafe in Hawaii at the moment… I’m all packed up and killing a bit of time before I have to get on the flight back the Bay Area.
The trip was a good one, as long as we don’t look at it strictly in fishing terms. I had a few reasons to head here and fishing was only one of them. In many ways this was a trip to bring the last 8 years of my life full circle and I think I accomplished that. Another reason to come here was this is where I saw my first bonefish, about 4 years ago. The experience had a bit of an impact on me and I always wanted to come back to have another shot at those fish.
The first couple of days the weather was considerably less than ideal. High winds, constant cloud cover and a good smattering of rain really put the damper on things… literally and figuratively.
Hard to see the fish with out the lights on.
The weather broke a bit on Saturday and I had a good amount of time with the lights on. No bones even seen.
Sunday… Sunday was what I was really here for. I walked out onto the flat and saw what looked like a bonefish feed mark. I took a picture. 20 seconds later I saw my first bonefish of the trip and 30 seconds later I spooked my first bonefish of the trip.
Much better conditions
I came back to that spot three more times and the next two I found single fish and at each occasion the fish spooked on the cast. Fly hit the water and the fish bolted. These fish are SUPER SPOOKY. They were in deeper water, maybe 3 feet, and I was lucky to see them at all.
Later, at low, low tide, I was walking really far out on a big rubble flat and I saw tails. I don’t even think they were tailing, I think they were swiming in water that was about 5-6″ deep. I got two casts in before they bolted, never to be seen again.
Sunday was a day of shots. I had them. I can’t argue with that. I didn’t convert any, but I had shots. I found the fish, on multiple occasions. Turns out these fish are a bit tougher than I planned on.
I’ll post some more pics and go into things a bit more in the coming days.
